Song Fair
01 · Historical Records
The fourth day of the fourth month at Ruiyun is the most relaxed night of the year for the families of the Lan, Lei, Zhong, and Li surnames in the village. On this night no altar is set up and no offering table is laid out; the bamboo groves, streams, tea fields, and ridges of farmland before and behind the village all become singing grounds. Those who sing in antiphony gather in groups of three or five, or teams of six or seven, singing whenever they arrive, with no need to register. The "huotouwang" moves the gathering out to open country, where a bonfire is lit and young men and women sing and dance together; the next day She rice is made and tables are laid out to entertain guests, the ox-horn zongzi being the most substantial of the dishes offered. The most intriguing thing about this set of festival customs is that it is the She people's attempt to finish singing, eating, and resting the oxen all on the same day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Ruiyun Fourth-Day-of-the-Fourth-Month song festival is one of the important festival customs of the She people of Ruiyun She Village, Xiamen She Ethnic Township, Fuding City, Fujian Province. Ruiyun is home to She people of the Lan, Lei, Zhong, and Li surnames; every year on the fourth day of the fourth lunar month, She singers display the traditional singing customs of the local She people through such distinctive ethnic activities as the singing contest and the "huotouwang". The singing grounds grow ever larger, the contest singing goes on all night, and the spectacle is unprecedented. During the song festival, some singing is done in the "open fields" — antiphonal singing in green bamboo groves, tea fields, by streams, beside small rivers, and in the fields — and some at one's own doorstep; groups singing in antiphony number three or five, or six or seven, varying in size. The Ruiyun contest songs are mostly improvised on the spot, composed and sung as one goes, with profound implications; they are called "santiao". Ruiyun She songs are rich in content and varied in form; the main categories are love songs, songs of life, labor songs, songs of current affairs, and miscellaneous songs. Through continual accumulation in singing and composition, the connotations of the She songs have been further explored and developed. In addition, new ways of life have also entered the singing contest, and She singers can even use mobile phones to sing in antiphony, shortening the distance of time and space. The She people of Ruiyun celebrate the "huotouwang" as their kind of "carnival": bonfires burn in the open country, and young men and women sing and dance together, full of enthusiasm and festivity. On this day the She families also make She rice and lay out tables to entertain relatives and friends; this is called the "fourth day of the fourth month". Among the foods made, the "ox-horn zongzi" is the most distinctive She delicacy: glutinous rice wrapped in green bamboo leaves from the She mountains and steamed, fragrant and mellow in flavor, named for its resemblance to an ox horn. The Ruiyun "fourth day of the fourth month" song festival is an important component of the traditional culture of the She people. It has been passed down orally from generation to generation, and some of the mountain songs have circulated among the people in hand-copied form, written in Chinese characters recording the She language.
Antiphonal singing in the wild
Song grounds lie in bamboo groves, tea fields, streams and farmland, with singers answering across the water through the night.
The bonfire night of huotouwang
Bonfires light in the open fields and young men and women dance and sing around them, the wildest night of the year.
Improvised santiao songs
Songs are composed as they are sung, known as santiao pieces; improvising well is the true test of a Ruoyun singer.
Ox-horn zongzi and the feast
Glutinous rice steamed in wild bamboo leaves comes out shaped like an ox horn; that day households lay a feast for friends and kin.
The rest-day for the ox
On the day the ox neither ploughs nor is whipped, and a special drink is prepared for it, hence the saying: the ox rests on the eighth, the person rests at the fifth-month festival.
Five subjects of She song
Love, daily life, labour, current affairs and miscellaneous songs run side by side and cross-fertilise, deepening the repertoire over generations.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The structure of the song festival in the Ruiyun area has clear layers: the outermost layer is the singing contest, with singing grounds set in open fields where singers from two villages face each other across a stream; the middle layer is the huotouwang, where once the bonfire is lit all the young people of the village join in; the innermost layer is antiphonal singing at the doorstep, in groups of three or five, each singing a stanza. The lyrics are mostly improvised on the spot and are called santiao, with the five categories of love songs, songs of life, labor songs, songs of current affairs, and miscellaneous songs proceeding in parallel. In recent years a new way of singing in antiphony has been added among the singers: even across mobile phones they can take up the song, so the distance of time and space has been greatly shortened; in addition, some of the mountain songs have been handed down in hand-copied form, written in Chinese characters recording the She language, leaving verifiable written texts.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Through long practice in life, the Ruiyun She "fourth day of the fourth month" has been given new content: for example, She farming households cherish and protect their draft oxen; on the "fourth day of the fourth month" the oxen no longer go down to the fields to plow, they may not be whipped, and they must be allowed a good rest, with "ox wine" prepared specially for the oxen to drink — hence it is called the "ox-loving festival", also known as the "ox-resting festival", with the proverb "the oxen rest on the fourth day of the fourth month, and people rest on the fifth-day festival". The music of the She songs is beautiful and moving, and both their literary and their artistic value is very high; they are also of great significance for research into the history of the local She people.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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